ART CALENDAR 2010

I have joined Jill and Kate's 2010 Art Calendar challenge and here is a picture of the front cover of my Art Calendar. The inside I will not show until the end of the month but because we are in January and it is still very cold and actually snowing here tonight my background is done in cold colours blue and white. I am really enjoying this and can't wait to get started not that I live a very interesting life but I am sure I will find something each day to put on the little squares.

I would just like to say to all my friends in blog land, all those who follow my blog and take the time to write all the kind comments a very, very Happy New Year to you all.

Christmas 2009

I have been absent from Blog Land for quite a while, the events of Christmas seem to have taken over my life. We are not usually at home at this time of year, normally we are sunning ourselves in some distant part but this year we decided to stay put. In away I am pleased we are at home what with all the disruption at airports and the weather causing chaos. I have been taking my dogs for walks and runs in the park as usual, they take priority, so every morning I have put on layers and layers of clothes and we have set off, they love the snow. Here are some photos I took while out with them before coming home to slave over a hot stove.

GLOBAL WARMING ATC

Here's another ATC I made for a monthly swap which I do with friends. We usually swap at the end of each month but because Christmas is so hectic I thought I would make it in advance and then maybe I might start doing Christmas cards lol. My husband went to France on business today and will be away until 20th Dec so hopefully I am going to have loads of time to do my cards and challenges, that is if I am not called on to be a taxi service for my grand-daughters. Back to the ATC, the blue background is done with an acrylic dabber, cloudy blue, I then sprayed it with Crafty Notions silver, which give a cloudy effect. The wording, you can hardly see on the PC , I did on the computer, cut out and coloured with chalk. The melting snow man is a Stampotique Original by Daniel Torrente and I just love them, so quirky. I stamped him on to special white paper and coloured bits of him with Sakura pens. The sun was cut out from a Cuttle Bug folder (snowflakes) coloured with chalk and glossed with Glossy Accents and all the little snowy bits are done with the Viva pearl pen.

CHRISTMAS ATC SWAP

This is an ATC I made for a monthly swap at the Craft Den, it is made using a Maya Road ATC chipboard shape which I coloured with Shabby Shutters Distress ink and stamped the square background with a Wendy Vechi stamp. The scallop frame and centre is from Maya Road, I coloured the outer border with Worn Lipstick and used a Viva pearl pen for the gold pearl drops. The centre is painted with a gold acrylic dabber and the wording stamped in black . At each corner I've placed a gold eyelet and the holly leaves are made from Grunge paper, coloured with shabby shutters, stamped with Versafine Olympia Green. The red berries are once again done with a red Viva pen and the whole thing is edged with the gold dabber.

Ready Steady Stamp Challenge 10

This is the second of 4 banners to be made for the RSS challenge. The requirements are to use the same colour scheme throughout, mine are red green and gold. For the background I used a Versa Color ink pad, Winter Green. There are always 5 ingredients to use in RSS challenges including colour but this time Christmas trees had to be included, eyelets, Kraft Paper and Cut n'Dry stamping. On top of my green background I stamped the Cut n'Dry in red giving an all over small diamond shape then I sprayed the whole with gold Glimmer mist. The Kraft paper I sprayed with the gold Glimmer mist too and then stamped 3 Paper Artsy Christmas Trees on to it, mounted them on to red vellum and cut them out. Attached at the top, using green eyelets, a Merry Christmas banner in red vellum but you can't see the words in the photo. I placed 3 gold star eyelets at each corner with a gold tassel hanging from the bottom one.

Gorgeous Grunge

I spent the whole day today at a workshop, bliss. We were using Tim's Grunge paper and board and I love it as you can do so much with it. We made 3 cards and a pencil case which we decorated with Distress inks, Shabby Shutters and Worn Lipstick. We used a small flourish stamp to make a pattern I don't think you can see it too well on this photo and then decorated the top with Grunge Paper flowers. Now I have to decide, do I use it or save it?

Play Date Cafe Challenge 5

The challenge on PDC this week is make whatever you wish but using the colours silver, blue, purple and white. This is my take on that I am not totally happy with it as I always seem to be last minute and then I am in a rush. The stamps are from Paper Artsy, Nut and Meg. The WANTED sign is stamped on to silver card although it looks blue on the photo, the elf is coloured in various shades of purple using different mediums, his pom-pom is Viva pearl pen in lilac. The three Christmas trees are from a Cuttlebug die embellished with silver stars. The white is my Merry Christmas label mounted on to purple card. The background paper I think is a Bo- Bunny, it is pale blue with a snowflake design and the whole card is a purple Bo -Bunny back to back and picks out the purple colour of the snowflakes on the back ground paper. Hope you like!

Dyan's Tag competiton

Dyan at Art From The Heart has some wonderful Ephemera digital sheets for sale. There are 7 of them and they are definitely worth purchasing. She is having a little competition using any of the images from these sheets. The art work has to be on a tag of any size etc but at least one image from the sheets has to be used. Well here's mine which I made tonight, it is called "An English man's home is his castle"

Play Date Cafe Challenge

Here's a card I made for Play Date Cafe Challenge. The ingredients to use were the following colours: Blue/Green, Cream, Chocolate Brown and Tan. The buttons I have used are tan, one threaded with tan embroidery silk and the other with cream ribbon. The lace is cream. I have edged my card with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink. The ticket embellishment is from Tim's idea-ology Adage Tickets. The flower is stamped on to Grunge Paper and cut out, I coloured the grunge paper first with Adirondack Pool and the smaller one Brushed Corduroy, the stamps are from the Wendy Vechi range Studio 490, the background stamp on the cream card is also a Wendy Vechi stamped in Adirondack Sepia and I stamped the WV quote with B Corduroy again I have also used Glossy Accents on flower dots I think I have met all the requirements.

Play Date Cafe Challenge

I am just in time to enter this challenge, it closes tonight at 11.59pm. The challenge is to use the colours black, red and white. I covered my card with a 7 Gypsies paper, cut out red, white and black ovals using the nestabilities. The stamp is a Daniel Torrente, "Marci" from Stampotique, I love these stamps. I stamped her and the words with onyx black versafine and heat embossed using clear powder, coloured her with a red H2O. I used Vivo pearl pens in black and Ice White around the scallop ovals and finished off with the red zig-zag ribbon.

ISABEL'S CHRISTMAS CARDS

Saturday afternoon I took my 12 year old grand-daughter to a craft workshop where we made Christmas cards. Isabel really enjoys coming to workshops with me and she is not at all put off by the fact that we are all mostly middle aged women or OAP's and there are no others of her age. I am so pleased I have a grand-daughter who is interested and loves crafting of any kind. On one occasion she actually made an Altered book (no help from me) which Dyan from Art From The Heart put on her blog as she thought it was so good.

Ready Steady Stamp Challenge 9

The challenge over on RSS is to make a Christmas Banner which will be spread over 4 weeks. The colour scheme is a personal choice, I decided to keep it traditional using red,green and gold but the same colours must be kept throughout the challenge. The shape has to be an inverted triangle which will be linked with the other 3 triangles to form a banner. The other 4 compulsory ingredients to be used are stars, glitter or gems, heat embossing and a stamped and cut out image. I cut my triangle from chipboard, coloured it initially with Fired Brick and Peeled Paint distress inks, I worked into that Versamagic Red Magic and Winter Green. I stamped stars all over the triangle embossed in gold and then I sprayed the whole with Crafty Notions gold spray. The Christmas tree and star is a Blonde Moments stamp, the tree I stamped in gold on to a piece of card which I had coloured in green, cut it out and triple embossed it, stuck red gems on to the tree to resemble lights. The star was stamped on to a piece of gold card triple embossed again, cut out and a gem placed in the middle. I went all the way around the edge with a gold Krylon pen, threaded red and gold beads on to pins with my Crop A Dile punced a hole and attached a jump ring to hold the beads. I really enjoyed making this and I hope I will enjoy doing the other 3 as much as this one. The photo does not do it justice as it actually is quite glittery in real life.

A NICE WAY TO SPEND AN AFTERNOON

I went to the Craft Den again this afternoon, it was a scrapbook workshop. We did a vintage layout and I have used a photo of my parents wedding day. I have added a tag to my page explaining for future generations who, when, what and where. It is very important to leave information with photos. I have lots of photos and it is really sad as I don't know who they are of and there is no one left in the family to ask who they are etc. We had a lovely afternoon chatting, drinking coffee and eating chocolate biscuits. All the materials we used were provided by the Craft Den.

MY FIRST CHRISTMAS CARD

This is the first Christmas card I have made this season. I seem to put off starting as I think about all the cards I need to make and all other projects have to be put on the back burner. Well anyway I quite like this one but they all won't be the same as I soon get bored making the same card. This one I used Blonde Moments papers "All I Want For Christmas" I used a Versafine black to stamp the image, a Janet Klein Stampotique Original, can be bought from the Stamp Attic. The image I coloured using Sakura pens. I used my Nestabilities for the background paper and card and cut out the other words and images from the Blonde Moments papers. My grand-daughters liked it so it must be ok. All of the stash I have used can be bought at Art From The Heart and the Craft Den.

FRIENDLY FACES

Yesterday evening I went to a Scrapbooking workshop at the Craft Den, it was a first for me as I don't normally do Scrapbooking. We had a lovely evening with lots of friendly faces, it was so relaxing. We also had a wonderful piece of chocolate cake with cream as this weekend it will be someone in our group's birthday so we sang happy birthday and then stuffed our faces. Wednesday evening they apparently had white chocolate cheese cake with blueberries, I missed that one as I went for a curry that evening. They are a lovely group of friendly people at the Craft Den, they always make you so welcome, you want to give it a try if you haven't been there. I just wish I lived a bit closer. Here's the page layout which we did, I am going to have to make another one as I have another dog and I don't want him to feel left out or jealous. So it's a double spread for me.

A BIRTHDAY CARD

I made this birthday card for a friend, it is larger than I normally make but it had to be a certain size to fit all the elements. I used Adirondack inks pinks and coffee. The stamps I used are 7Gypsies bird, the letter B stamp is a Katzel Kraft stamps designed by Isa Norris and her mother. They are a set of French unmounted stamps. I also stamped inside the card and on the envelope using Ranger stampsand a Brilliance Ink pad pearlescent orchid. I gave the bird an eye using the Viva Pearl Pen and the flowers are from Hero Arts, I coloured them with Adirondack pink sherbert and put a pearl brad in the middle of each flower. I enjoyed making this card I hope she likes it.

Ready Steady Stamp Challenge 8

Here is a card I have just completed for the RSS Challenge 8 related to Christmas. The list of ingredients to use were:

C for Christmas

Lilac, black and silver

Snowflakes

Crackles

A skinny measuring 2"x4"/5x10cms

There are always 5 ingredients in each challenge.

I covered the card with Milled Lavender Distress ink, edged in silver using a Krylon pen and stamped snowflakes around the edge using both silver and grape inks. I put a piece of black card through the cuttlebug using the snowflake folder and chalked a pearlescent lilac on each snowflake and sprayed with hair lacquer. The card was edged in silver again. My skinny I covered in Milled lavender Distress Ink and painted Milled Lavender crackle paint over the card, stamped Merry Christmas in black, edged in silver, attached with 3 snowflake eyelets which I painted with a silver Dabber, punched the silver snowflake from glitter paper.

MY CRAFT ROOM

I have noticed people are putting photos of their craft rooms on their blogs so here's mine. I know, I know it is very tidy but that's me. Just because it is tidy doesn't mean I don't do very much in there, I just cannot work in a mess every thing has to be in an order (I think it's an illness)lol. I just can't wait to go to my craft room each day when I have finished my house work and the dogs have had their exercise. The only problem is I have to share this room with my husband and he is not the tidiest of people and besides that I want his half so as I can have room for more crafting stash, ah well. In fact I am so bad this morning my husband wanted the paper to read with his breakfast and couldn't find it, I had put it in the GREEN Bin. His response to that was, "why don't you just cut out the middle man, pay the newsagent for the papers and ask him to bin them instead of delivering them." Good thing he has a sense of humour and knows what I am like.

By the way I am not very good at taking or blogging photos so my art work doesn't always look as it should, I need some lessons in photography but then I have to learn to accept that not everything can be perfect.

A LOVELY WAY TO SPEND A SUNDAY

I had a lovely day today I went to the Stamp Magic Paper Craft Show at Doncaster Dome. It is not a very big show but there are lots of interesting stalls and demos. Dyan was there from Art From The Heart demoing her usual fantastic stuff, there's always a crowd at her stand. The place was full and I met up with quite a few friends from the crafting world, it was lovely to see everyone and have a chat. Of course I spent way too much money, what's new.lol. I came home and took my 2 dogs for a long walk before it got too dark, I hate these short days and long dark evenings the only consolation is that I can come upstairs into my cosy craft room and play.

This evening I have made this birthday card for my neighbour, I hope she likes it. I took the idea from Wendy Vecchi's book "Make Art" Studio 490 Style. Most of the projects are made from Maya Road chipboard books, the colours are Ranger Distress Inks and the embellishments are stamped with Archival inks. On my card the flowers etc are from Grunge paper with a button centre. I punched holes in the chipboard, placed eyelets and threaded the ribbon through. I also stamped on the back of the card using a Crafty Individuals stamp. The project is not exactly the same as the one in the book as I don't have all the stamps unfortunately. All of the ingredients can be bought at the Craft Den.

Another Halloween Swap

Once a month I do an ATC swap with a friend. I try to make it as appropriate to the month as possible, so of course next week is Halloween need I say more. I stole the twisted wire technique from Sue Roddis, she used this technique on an ATC she made for RSS challenge this month. The wire is fixed on to the card using the Tiny Attacher by Tim Holtz. The Distress crackle paint is again a Tim Holtz product. I went over the whole thing using Walnut Stain and Peeled Paint Distress inks. It doesn't show up on the photo but the inks soak into the cracks of the paint. Underneath the wire I had stamped a branch image and along the bottom edge a black cat. The numbers are from Tims Ideology, I coloured them with the alcohol inks and used brads to fix them on to the ATC.

I love doing ATC's but I always need one suggestion to set me off and Sue's wire idea which actually came from Tim Holtz was perfect.

Hello, recently i have received this blogger award from my friend Ann (Flutterbycrafter)
I am very honoured to be nominated, so thank you very much. There are a few rules
you have to follow inorder to accept this award.

The rules are:
1. Thank the person who awarded it to you.
2. Copy logo onto your blog.
3. Link the person to your blog.
4. Name seven things that no-one really knows about you.
5. Nominate 7 blogs for the award
6. Post a link to each blog
7. Leave a comment on each blog telling them about the award.


Here are the seven things about me you probably do not know.
1. I am a chocoholic
2. I broke my leg when i was rollerskating (yes, rollerskating) at the age of twelve.
3. I love going for pedicures each month.
4. I'm really quite a 'quiet' person.
5. I am an Elvis fan.
6. I would like to be musical and to play a musical instrument.
7. I used to dye my hair blonde, to cover up the grey.

...That was pretty hard.

Now on to the nominating!
1. Jo Blogs because I love her work-so creative and I take inspiration from her work.

2. Angel whispers because she makes wonderfull cards and she's a genuinely nice,friendly person.

3. Daisy236 because I LOVE her dogs, they are adorable.Not only does she do scrapbooking and cards she also does beautiful needlework.

4. Lynne at the Craft Den because she has made me feel so welcome.

5. Dyan at ART FROM THE HEART because she taught me everything I know in art & crafting and opened up a whole new world for me and through Dyan I have made lots of new friends in the crafting world.Thank you.

6.) Jabberwocky because she produces the kind of art work I love and is sooooooooooo inspirational.

7.) And last but not least- Wendyat the STAMP ATTIC because her shop is full of wonderful crafting stash and she is so approachable.

Halloween blog candy

Click on the link below, to enter a great halloween competition, you can win lots of prizes, just by guessing what Ava, a nine month old baby will be wearing for halloween.
http://craftden-lynne.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-blog-candy-time.html

Ready Steady Stamp Challenge

I really enjoy taking part in these challenges, they give me something to aim for.This is another fat quarter I've done for RSS challenge number 7, I missed challenge 6 as I was away but I think I will do it to keep as a record of my art work. There are always 5 items which must be incorporated into the art work and cute is not allowed. This time it is all about Autumn, you are required to use the colours brown, cream and ochre, staples a distress ink background and hessian. So I stamped the word Autumn on to cream card attached this to a distress bacground using Tim Holtz mini stapler and staples. I stamped the tree with a Paper Artsy stamp using Adirondack coffee ink pad, the birds from Tim Holtz. The leaves and sun I punched from appropriate coloured papers. I attached a leaf embellishment, once more one of Tim's. The whole is stapled to a hessian background.

Another wonderful day journaling at AFTH

I really look forward to these Sunday Art Journal workshops with Dyan at Art From The Heart. She is such a wonderful teacher and has us all hooked on journaling. It is such a relaxing day and so good to have the opportunity to work on the journals without interuption such as "are you taking the dogs out, what times dinner?" etc, you all know and understand what I mean. I managed to do 2 pages today in my Moleskine inbetween eating gorgeous cake brought by the lovely Olive. That is something else I normally don't do-eat cake but we get into allsorts of mischief at Dyan's especially when Ben isn't there LOL. Well I can't wait for the next workshop its also such a social event. Well I suppose I had better go and get the dinner ready!

HALLOWEEN

Here are a couple of ATC'S which I did for a swap at the Craft Den. The backgrounds are done using Versamgic Chalk Ink on one I glued a piece of torn old book paper, stamped over the top using the new Basic Grey Halloween acrylic stamps,the cat is a Hero Arts stamp. The face is a Stampotique stamp "Miss Snotty (from the Stampattic) which I stamped on to Grunge Paper,coloured using distress inks and a water brush, 2 black gems for the eyes. The bat wings, witches hat and "Boo" are all from Lisa's Altered Art images I used Ranger glossy accents to give them a shine, the birds are one of Tims stamps. The second ATC was done in a similar way except I stamped the background using Tims web and then over stamped the bats which are from Hero Arts. The spider hanging from a thread is anotherfrom Stampotique by Jill Penney. I got my ideas from this months Craft Stamper another Sue Roddis creation which I adapted.

DEZINAWORLD LACE CHALLENGE

This months (October) challenge at Dezinaworld is LACE. You can make anything you wish, card, ATC, whatever so long as you use lace. Here is mine it is a "Fat Quarter" ie. 4"x4". I used Ranger Milled Lavender for the background and stenciled a lace pattern top and bottom using a stencil from The Crafters Workshop and Dusty Concorde Distress Ink which just shows through the lace. The image is from Crafty Individuals which I attached to a Crafty Individuals frame, I painted this with one of my Adirondack Dabbers in raspberry and then glued my lace on to the frame. The larger frame I covered with Basic Grey paper from the Euphoria range. Using double sided I placed both frames on to my fat quarter attached lace all the way round the edge and placed the four flowers at each corner. All the materials I used can be bought from the Craft Den.

Now I just need to work out how to link this to Dezinalworld blog for June to pick up.

A BIRTHDAY CARD

Here's a birthday card I did for a friend, I knew her bithday was October but I wasn't quite sure of the date, however, I now know when it is. I hope she doesn't read my blog and see her card before she gets it. The card is copied from the new Wendy Vecchi's project book "Make Art Studio 490 Style". It is a wonderful book full of ideas and she takes you through each project step by step, very detailed. I had to adapt ideas for this card as I unfortunately do not have all Wendy Vecchi's stamps. She uses Rangers Distress Inks, Adirondack Ink pads and Tims Grunge paper all of which can be bought at the Art From The Heart and the Craft Den. I really enjoyed making this card especially as it took my mind off a big drama going on around me-my husband being admitted to hospital very ill. Today he is alot better but under going numerous tests to see what the problem is, he acctually should have been going to Paris today on business so that's put a stop to his "galivanting".

ATC SWAP

I made a set of ATC's for a monthly swap this evening I didn't know whether to do Hallowene or Breast Cancer Awareness, so as October is awareness month I decided on that. Two of the backgrounds are done with Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid and one is done with Adirondack Dabbers after having attached a torn piece of music sheet. On this one I stamped 3 tiny circles using a pen top and edged with one of the dabbers. All the images and wording are from Lisa's Altered Art. One of the backgrounds I stamped the numbers in Archival Ink Plum colour, the stamp is a Paper Artsy mini. I then used the zig-zag stitch on my machine to sew around the edges and with a straight stitch went twice around the images. The 3 ribbons were attached using Tims mini stapler. Finally on two of them I glued 3 tiny buttons using Art Glitter glue. The one with the sheet of music I went over the whole thing with Claudine Hellmuth's multi-medium gloss to give it a slight shine.

Back from Spain

Well I'm back from sunny Spain and it was sunny and really hot the whole time I was there, most days it was between 28 and 30c. I took a lot of my art stuff with me such as about 6 of my paint dabbers, my wonderful Derwent Inktense crayons, I just love these the colours are fantastic, loads of pens, pencils, glue sticks, scissors etc and of course my Moleskine journal. I bought 4 more of the Moleskine books while in Madrid, I'm trying to catch up to Dyan at AFTH but I don't think I ever will. I didn't have much time to do any of my journal although I did manage to do 2 pages. I went to the museums and saw what I was wanting to see, I will probably journal about these later. The first Journal page is about going to Spain and I have done it in the colours of the Spanish flag. I pinched an idea from Dyan and Kate Crane and stuck my boarding card on the page, we flew Easy Jet so the colours went perfectly. The second page I did was nothing to do with Spain, it is about breast cancer as October is breast cancer month. This is really important to me as I had breast cancer 14 years ago and was only give a 25% chance of staying a live and here I am full of life and enjoying every minute of it.

ESPANA

Tomorrow I am going to Spain for a few days with my husband, he will be there for business meetings so I will have some time to myself, great! The first place we are going to is Bilbao in the Basque province and I intend to visit the famous GUGGENHEIM museum there, I expect to see lots of Pablo Picasso's art work which I have not seen in real life before. In Madrid at the Reina Sofia Museum they have the very famous Picasso painting "Guernica" all about the Spanish Civil War. I intend to see that this time while we are in Madrid visiting family at the weekend, for those of you who don't know my husband is Spanish. So after all of that my journal page today is related to my visit to Spain, it is done in the colours of the Spanish flag and features an image of a water pitcher by Picasso. I intend to take some of my art equipment so as I can journal in my Moleskine book while I am there. Normally I take far too many clothes just in case but this time my bag is going to be full of all my necessary art stuff. I will let you know what my husband says as he always packs my case!

See you all soon.

A PLEASANT EVENING

A few of us spent a pleasant friendly evening at the Craft Den last Wednesday. The aim was to make a wall hanging from 3 CDs, it was so laid back and relaxing that I didn't finish mine in the class, too busy chatting, drinking coffee and eating gorgeous chocolate brownies all provided by Lynne at the Craft Den along with all the materials we used. So at about 10pm this evening I decided it was time to finish mine, so here it is.

ART JOURNAL PAGES

Today I had the most fantastic day at AFTH with Dyan. We were learning Art Journaling techniques, a step by step process which can actually be found on her August blog but learning there in the studio is 100% better. I don't think any of us wanted the workshop to come to an end I know I certainly didn't. Here are the two pages I did one is completed and the other requires some more work but I can't wait to do more. Of course while I was there I had to shop didn't I.

If any of you read Dyan's blog you will know I made her an Altered Art book about her and Art From The Heart which she was over the moon about, luckily today she didn't blub all over me when she saw me but she gave me a lovely prezzie which I am going to find very, very useful in my art journal work.

BREATHE ATC

Last night I made this ATC for my son as he is into Alternative therapy and Breath work is apparently one of them. I will be taking his two daughters to see him at the weekend so I will give it to him then. He will have no idea what an ATC is so I think I will write him an explanation to go with it.

2010 CALENDAR

On Saturday I went to a workshop at one of my local craft shops where we made a calendar using our Bind-It-All machines. It was quite funny really and typical of us crafters in that a number of us had the machine but it was so long since we used it (ashamed to say) that we couldn't remember what to do. Luckily Liz is such a good teacher that we were all successful under her guidance. The calendar actually took quite a long time to make as there was a lot of measuring of card and cutting out, the stamping didn't take very long and all the stamps were from Elusive Images. The lettering was done on the Cricut (hope I've spelt that correctly) this is one machine I have not bought, yet!!!!!

Sunday was spent at the "Great Northern Papercraft Extravaganza" in Harrogate. It was a wonderful day as usual. I kept meeting up with people I know from various crafting workshops and we had a great time looking at what each one of us had bought (like children). I spent far too much as usual but bought some wonderful stash and then came home and bought a load of Wendy Vechi stamps from the Stamp Attic. Just don't anyone tell my husband. I think I may have to go back to supply teaching to fund my "habit".

The Coke Can Experiment

This is just me having a play this evening. I got my husband to take the top and bottom off a can of cola (empty of course) lol, then to open it up into a strip of metal for me to experiment with. He very sarcastically asked if I wanted him to go to the chemist to stock up on bandages and elastoplasts, well actually they weren't needed. I then embossed the metal using 2 of my favourite Cuttlebug folders, coloured them with alcohol inks and when dry rubbed them down with the sanding block. I mounted the green one on to a tag using eyelets and the owl I mounted on to card using brads. I did try using Bostick glue but it wasn't very successful. Remember they are not supposed to be fantastic as it was just an experiment using a coca cola can.

FREEBIE STORAGE

I too made the little box which Joanne Wardle devised to store the free stamps which come with the Craft Stamper magazine. It is a brilliant idea as I never know what to do with them and just throw them in a drawer. This has made me organise them and laminate them. Unfortunately as I was doing this my grand-daughter who is a great fan of the Jonas Brothers (who?) decided to download photos of the group and get grandma to laminate them lol, well what are grandmas for!

I will be making another box of similar dimensions on Tuesday with Ann but this time I will be covering it in metal work, I am really looking forward to this. All the metal work equipment we will be using will be provided by The Craft Den.

2000 LEAGUES ATC

This is an ATC I have made for a monthly swap which I do with friends. In this ATC I am trying to delay the onset of Autumn/Winter. I used Adirondack stonewashed at the top and blended in Adirondack lettuce in the bottom half, stamped with an Elusive Images stamp using different colours of Stazon in strips. To give it some sparkle I have used tiny gems for the sea-horse eye and on the stamped shell, glued an authentic shell in the corner, glittery sand using scattered straw Stickles and cinnamon Stickles on the plant and finally Glossy Accents on the pebbles and strands.

"CRITTERS"

I enjoy making these little creatures, they are weird but I love them. I have given a few away especially to the young nursery nurses at work, they hang them on their bags. I have one the first I made and I hang it on my crafting tote bag. I make them from natural linen or canvas which I then paint with Claudine Hellmuth's gesso followed by Claudines paints, sometimes I spray them with Crafty Notions or Glimmer Mist. The mouth and eye area are splogged with white paint, buttons sewn on for eyes and mouth stitched. I whiz around with the sewing machine, stuff them and stitch up the last part. I prefer to punch a hole in the top or in a ear with my Crop-A-dile, put in an eyelet and use a Tim H ball and chain to hang them. I originally got the idea from a book I have called Canvas Remix by Alisa Burke, a wonderful book.

CHRISTMAS CARDS

Today I went to one of my regular classes but a different teacher, I had not met her before. I went because the description was for Christmas cards using the cuttlebug,lol, we made one card using the CB. I will not mention the teachers name or the place but I have never been to such a disorganised class, it was a free for all. The first hour was spent chatting with her regulars. Luckily the young woman who was working with me was of the same opinion as me, so we just got on with it and actually made these 6 cards, seen in real life they are a bit messy and not to my taste as I don't like large cards. When Christmas comes I don't know how we are expected to post them as we didn't get envelopes with them and by the end of the afternoon I had had enough and couldn't be bothered. The teacher is probably at a disadvantage with me as all the classes I go to and have been to over the years have been really good and well organised people. I have another class booked for November with the same teach, I am obviously going to cancel.

Ready Steady Stamp Challenge

This is a "fat quarter" I made for this weeks Ready Steady Stamp challenge. The instructions were to use some stamping, the colours brown, cream,and white, scalloped circles, rain drops and it had to incorporate the letter A. I hope this photo turns out better than the last one which was not very clear. I am still very new to blogging and computers so you will have to excuse mistakes, please.

A SPANISH SENORITA

I made this ATC for the Dezinaworld challenge, immediately I saw the image it made me think of a Spanish dancer with the black mantilla.